Sgt. Al Apone: Bug Hunt Past, LV-426 & Brother Explained

By Janno Vares, Founder & Editor, covering Alien vs. Predator since 2001
August 25, 2026

Sergeant Alexander "Al" Apone was a United States Colonial Marine platoon sergeant on the USS Sulaco in Aliens, service number A19/TQ4.0.32751E8. The hypersleep readout listed him as M/SGT, and later material such as Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report kept that Master Sergeant grade even though the squad still called him Sergeant in the field. He woke the unit, ran the drop on LV-426, burned the first Chestburster in the hive, and was dragged alive when the Warriors hit. Aliens: Bug Hunt put him on earlier jobs with the same people. Aliens: Bishop later brought in his younger brother, Captain Marcel Apone.

Earlier Bug Hunts

Apone waking from hypersleep aboard the Sulaco with a cigar in his mouth in Aliens

Apone already had this squad before LV-426. In Rachel Caine's Broken, from the Aliens: Bug Hunt anthology, the unit had lost its previous synthetic, and he took a damaged Bishop onto the books after Haarsa Colony. Bishop had already powered down after that fight, and Lieutenant Lucky Larsen left word that the synth might still be usable. Hudson helped get the android running again, so Bishop was already with those Marines when the Sulaco later woke them for the colony job.

In Christopher Golden's Blowback the same later Sulaco people were on the toxic moon Clytemnestra, under Lieutenant Emma Paulson. Weyland-Yutani wanted glassy black fliers cleared so a science team could take an atmospheric gas. Pulse rounds detonated the fliers because their body solvent was propane, a risk the company already knew about. Stenbeck and Zeller died in that fight. Vasquez needled Apone even on that job, then hauled Corporal Dietrich into the retreat. Hicks confronted Paulson over the withheld intel before Apone ordered him to stand down.

Look Into My Eye

Apone pulling his eyelid down with a cigar after waking the Sulaco squad in Aliens

He woke the squad with another glorious day in the Corps, cigar already in his teeth, then got them off the tubes. Hudson complained that the floor was freezing. Apone asked if he should fetch slippers, then pulled his lower eyelid down and told Hudson to look into his eye. After Lieutenant Gorman's briefing he moved them with assholes and elbows, still in the USCM cap, gold chain still on from hypersleep.

Drop On LV-426

Apone shouting a command aboard the dropship on the way to LV-426 in Aliens

The Sulaco unit dropped to check the lost colony at Hadley's Hope. Gorman held formal command from the APC while Apone ran the ground sweep. He let both smartgunners drop the M10 helmet because the gun sights got in the way, then put Drake on Hicks's fireteam for the rooms. At the sealed main lock in the rain he called Hudson over, and Hudson patched the wiring until the door came halfway open. The colony was empty at first glance: barricades, spent casings, and motion tracker readings that led under the atmosphere processor instead of living colonists.

Hive And Chestburster

Apone in helmet and TNR lamp inside the Hadley's Hope hive before using the flamethrower in Aliens

Gorman ordered the guns cold near the reactor. Apone had the magazines and grenades pulled, and he gave the magazine duty to Frost. The floor opened into resin and cocooned colonists. When a living colonist birthed a Chestburster, Apone grabbed an M240 incinerator and burned it, the only clear Xenomorph kill among the ground team before the ambush. Minutes later the Warriors came off the walls. In Alan Dean Foster's novelization he handed the confiscated magazines back once the shooting started.

Death

Apone in helmet and TNR lamp in the hive moments before a Warrior takes him in Aliens

A bad headset left him trying to hear Gorman's fall-back order while the hive closed in, and a Warrior dragged him into the dark as a host while Drake died covering the pullback. Ellen Ripley drove the APC to the entrance and pulled Hicks, Vasquez, and Hudson out. Hudson's board showed a low life sign for Apone, so he was still alive and likely cocooned like the others. Ferro and Spunkmeyer died soon after when a stowaway Warrior hit the dropship cockpit. Foster's book kills Apone outright in that ambush instead of leaving him alive for the hive. In Pat Cadigan's book of William Gibson's unused Alien 3 script, Hicks later kept him as a memory with Vasquez, Hudson, Gorman, and the rest of the LV-426 squad.

Marcel Apone

T. R. Napper's Aliens: Bishop brought in Al's younger brother after the events on Fury 161. Captain Marcel Apone commanded the Colonial Marine ship Il Conde, another Conestoga-class hull, and boarded the USCSS Patna while company commandos closed in for the same prize: the rebuilt Bishop and the Xenomorph data still locked in that mind. The fight cost people on both sides. Bishop broke from Michael Bishop's plan and left with Marcel's company instead. On the Il Conde afterward he wore Marine blue fatigues and dog tags again, then took the next job years out into the Far Reach.

Apone In The Comics

Apone leading Marines into the Hadley's Hope hive in Aliens: Newt's Tale

Dark Horse published Aliens: Newt's Tale as a two-issue miniseries in 1992, written by Mike Richardson and painted by John Bolton. It retold the fall of Hadley's Hope from Newt's side of the vents, including the processor sweep. Bolton painted Apone at the front of the entry team as they moved into the resin, helmet lamp on, still running the rooms. The comic kept that insertion and did not replace the film grab with a different death.

He was left out of both Aliens: Field Report, a short retelling of half of Aliens, and Aliens: What If?, a retelling of the second half. He did appear in the Hungarian Aliens: Halál.

Apone Skin In Aliens: Colonial Marines

Sergeant Al Apone multiplayer skin in Aliens: Colonial Marines, with cigar and in-game bio

Aliens: Colonial Marines put Apone in competitive multiplayer as a Limited Edition skin, sold with Hicks, Hudson, and Drake as the four Aliens Marines in that pack. The model used the film cigar, a black patrol cap with the USCM patch, camo fatigues, and an APONE name tape. The in-game card called him a true Marine to the bone, then treated the hive grab as the end: overcome in the first encounter and presumably cocooned under Hadley's Hope. The campaign did not find a body for him the way it later found Hudson under the colony.

Weapons And Equipment

Apone with a lit TNR shoulder lamp on M3 armor beside Hicks and Vasquez in Aliens

On the drop he carried an M41A Pulse Rifle until Gorman's no-fire order took the magazines, then the M240 incinerator for the Chestburster. His M3 armor took a TNR shoulder lamp, and a pair of infrared binoculars rode on a chest strap during the colony search. The M10 helmet and boom mic went on for the processor. Yellow sergeant chevrons sat on the sleeve even though the cryo readout had already marked him Master Sergeant.

Sgt. Apone As A Space Marine

Kenner Aliens Space Marine card art of Apone firing a pulse rifle with a Xenomorph behind him

Kenner's 1990s Aliens: Space Marines line sold an Apone figure in Series 1 and packed small Dark Horse comics with other Marines. Hicks' pack comic Showdown put Apone and Drake back in the fight after Hadley's Hope, with no explanation, now hunting bright hive variants under Lieutenant Ripley, outside Alien 3 continuity. Kenner's own card art put him in a red cap worn backward, a yellow shirt, and a pulse rifle with a Warrior at his shoulder, the same kid-line war the comics sold.

Behind The Scenes

Al Matthews as Apone laughing on the Aliens Sulaco locker set with James Cameron, William Hope, and Jenette Goldstein

Al Matthews was a United States Marine and Vietnam veteran before he played Apone. He later told interviewers that James Cameron decided on the casting in about thirty seconds. Cameron asked him to train the marine actors, and the main lesson was muzzle discipline: no finger on the trigger, no weapon pointed at another person, even with blanks. That lesson is in Superior Firepower: The Making of Aliens. On the same shoot, James Remar, the first Hicks, put a shotgun hole through an adjacent Little Shop of Horrors stage while Frank Oz was filming there.

The marine cast trained together at Pinewood, and Vasquez's actress Jenette Goldstein worked with Matthews on that set. Matthews had already been the first Black voice on BBC Radio 1, and he kept acting after Aliens in films such as Superman III, The Fifth Element, and Tomorrow Never Dies. He died in 2018 in Alicante, Spain, at 75.

Merchandise

NECA 7-inch Kenner Tribute Sergeant Apone figure with No Bugs shirt, red cap, and bio-mechanical right arm

Kenner shipped a 5-inch Sgt. Apone in the 1992 Aliens Series 1 line as item 65780, packed with a silver rifle, two stretch-launch grenades, a sticker sheet, and a Dark Horse mini-comic. The sculpt used a yellow NO BUGS shirt, a red cap worn backward, green trousers, and a mechanical arm, not the film helmet and cigar. He reached US shelves in the same first marine wave as Hicks, Ripley, Bishop, and Drake, before Vasquez and Hudson. NECA never added a movie-likeness 7-inch Apone the way it did Hudson, Hicks, and Vasquez. In late 2018 it shipped a Kenner Tribute instead as Series 13 item 51670, about 7 inches, with the bio-mechanical right arm, heavy grenades on the back, and a rifle.

Famous Quotes

"All right, sweethearts, what are you waiting for? Breakfast in bed?"
"Another glorious day in the Corps. A day in the Marine Corps is like a day on the farm. Every meal's a banquet. Every paycheck a fortune. Every formation a parade. I love the Corps!"
"What do you want me to do, fetch your slippers for you?"
"Look into my eye."
"You secure that shit, Hudson!"
"Assholes and elbows!"
"Hudson, come here."
"Bay 12, please."
"They ain't paying us by the hour. Let's go."
"Hudson, run a bypass."
"Check those corners."

Conclusion

Al Apone was the Sulaco sergeant who ran the squad while Gorman watched from the APC. He burned the first Chestburster on LV-426 and was taken in the hive. Bug Hunt placed him on Haarsa and Clytemnestra. Aliens: Bishop later put his brother Marcel on the Il Conde, still in the Corps after Al was gone.